The present invention relates to an apparatus used for the processing of poultry. Specifically, the invention is a machine for removing the meat and wings from a portion of an eviscerated chicken.
It is desirable, for both economy and safety, to automate poultry processing. Numerous machines have been described in the prior art, which can be used for various processing activities. For instance, U. S. Pat. No. 3,564,644 to Cannon describes an apparatus for slicing poultry breasts into sections. U. S. Pat. No. 3,943,600 to Cramer discloses a conveyor apparatus to sequentially separate a whole chicken into its usable parts. U. S. Pat. No. 3,946,461 to Martin discloses another breast sectioning machine. U. S. Pat. No. 4,270,243 to Lewis shows a device for splitting a chicken breast of a poultry carcass in half. U. S. Pat. No. 4,373,232 to Harding et al. is yet another machine which cuts a poultry carcass into pieces.
However, none of the prior art machines discussed relate to the removal of meat from the carcass. It is desirable to provide a machine which can simply and economically process chicken carcasses by removing the usable meat from the carcass.